DEN92FA091 · Beech E-55
RMS Sales Beech E-55 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From 2V2 · Longmont, CO to Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN92FA091
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech E-55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft E-55
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N12GG
- Operator
- RMS Sales
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2V2 · Longmont, COTo Steamboat Springs Bob Adams Field (SBS), Steamboat Springs, CO
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING AND WAS TOLD VFR FLIGHT WAS NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN HIS DEPARTURE POINT AND DESTINATION, AND A CONVECTIVE SIGMET HAD BEEN ISSUED. ADDITIONALLY, FLIGHT PRECAUTIONS HAD BEEN POSTED FOR MOUNTAIN OBSCUREMENT, LIGHT TO MODERATE MIXED TO CLEAR ICING, AND OCCASIONAL LIGHT TO MODERATE TURBULENCE. THE PILOT DID NOT FILE A FLIGHT PLAN AND DEPARTED. HUNTERS REPORTED SEEING A LOW FLYING TWIN ENGINE AIRPLANE CIRCLE THE AREA, THEN THEY HEARD THE IMPACT. THEY SAID THE WEATHER CONSISTED OF A LOW CEILING, REDUCED VISIBILITY, FOG, HIGH WINDS, AND RAIN THAT FOLLOWED A SNOW SHOWER. RECORDS INDICATE THE PILOT DID NOT FLY BETWEEN 1978 AND 1991, AND HAD RECENTLY BEEN GIVEN A CHECKOUT IN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE. NEAR VERTICAL IMPACT RESULTED IN MINIMAL WRECKAGE SCATTER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT BECOMING SPATIALLY DISORIENTED AND LOSING CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. FACTORS WERE: THE PILOT'S DISREGARD OF THE PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFING, HIS INTENTIONAL VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS, HIS LACK OF RECENT INSTRUMENT TIME, AND WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN92FA091
- Event ID
- 20001211X15681
- Case number
- DEN92FA091
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-09-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e07db8d8491ccdffb527ffa54ef8b4d319b704982be5477c50f764ea3b65afc9; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:57:50.022Z.